Life and diary of Lieut. Col. J. Blackader

550 LIFE OF COL. BLACKADER. CHAP. XXI.
Something of this kind seems to have been ex-
hibited in the instance of Colonel Blackader. While
he suffered the extremity of bodily pain, his soul ap-
pears to have burst from underneath the cloud of
mental anxiety, and the pressure of severe distress.
That temporary dejection of which he occasionally
complained in earlier life, had entirely vanished. The
gloom that sometimes intercepted the eye of faith in
its contemplations of futurity, disappeared as the glories
of the invisible world were more nearly revealed. A
well grounded assurance of an interest in the Re-
deemer's merits had calmed all his solicitudes; and
Hope, rising to full fruition, lighted up every dark spot
in his anticipations. His mind retained to the last
uncommon firmness, and his piety its usual fervour.
When his physicians informed him that his distemper
was beyond the reach of medicine, — that sympathy
was now the only aid they could administer, he is
said to have received the melancholy intelligence with
the most resigned submission. Raising himself on his
bed, he surveyed his friends with a placid and digni-
fied composure. He thanked all his attendants for
their kind services, and having taken leave of his
family, he breathed his last, expressing his firm hope
and earnest desire of another and a better life beyond
time and mortality. This took place on Sabbath
morning the 31st of August 1729, when he was within
a few days of completing his sixty-fifth year. His
remains were interred in the West-Church of Stirling,
within which, on the south wall, near the pulpit, is
fixed a plain marble tablet, erected several years ago
by one of his near relations, bearing the following in-
scription, which expresses briefly and modestly a gene-
ral outline of his life and character : —